We got the camper all loaded up and ready to go dry camping out at Port Angeles and watch the Sprint Boat Races.
We loaded up the camper and headed out to Port Angeles for a weekend of dry camping to watch the Sprint Boat Races. We left on Friday and returned home on Sunday, accompanied by some friends. We had a fantastic time watching the races, visiting, and enjoying delicious meals such as sausage and egg breakfasts, chicken fried rice, and brats.
This is the track rotation that the boats had to follow, track rotation number 1.
Sprint boat racing is one of the most unique motorsports in the world. With a course that consists of a three-foot-deep channel, 20 feet wide, filled with water, wrapped throughout six small islands, creating 13 turns all within a footprint the size of a football field.
The boats in this sport are aluminum hulls that are 12-feet long with a jet pump that moves 600-gallons per second. The engines that run these water-rockets can range from 400 horsepower in the beginner class to over 1,000 horsepower in the unlimited class. Reaching speeds that take you from zero to 100 mph in three seconds reaching up to 8Gs throughout the 13 turns.
In order to reach these speeds, it requires an above-average responsive navigator to help point the driver throughout the course. What makes this sport so challenging is the race teams do not receive the official track-rotation, that provides the sequence of turns around the islands, until the night before they race. The drivers and navigators in the sport is truly what make this unique. With ages ranging from 19 to 68 years old, it matches seniors against youths and women against men.